Rejang River Cruise

Rajang River Cruise Set For July Next Year

By Edward Subeng Stephen

SIBU (Malaysia), Sept 30 (Bernama) -- A Myanmar-based company is planning to begin its inaugural Rajang River cruise here in July next year.

The Irrawaddy Fotilla Company said on its website that the cruise along Malaysia's longest river will be part of its Pandaw River Cruises.

The company is the largest river cruise company in South East Asia.In 1995, it was the first to pioneer an exploration of some of the region's major rivers and tributaries.

These included the Irrawaddy and Chindwin in Myanmar, the Mekong and Tonle Rivers in Cambodia and the backwaters of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.

A brand new five star ship, the four-deck RV Orient Pandaw, made in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City will be used for the Rajang cruise.

The 55-metre long ship has 30 luxury state rooms. It also has its own treatment plants for desalination, desedimentation and purification using UV and osmosis in addition to a microbiotic treatment plant for sewage.

The Pandaw ship series, replicas of the original Clyde-built steamers, have an ultra shallow draft to enable them to moor where other larger ships cannot.

The ships can also penetrate remote and otherwise inaccessible areas while being specially designed to cope with constantly changing river conditions.

The Rajang cruise, a duration of nine days and eight nights, begins here with stops at Kanowit, Kapit and Nanga Mujong in Balleh before moving on to the Pelagus Rapids, Song, Sarikei and Tanjung Manis towns.

The cruise is planned for thrice a month.

It will also stop at longhouses, logging camps, the vestiges of the Brooke White Rajah era such as the Fort Emma in Kanowit, Fort Sylvia, the Pelagus Resort in Kapit, fruit and pepper farms, traditional songket textile workshops and other places of interest along the way.

Each passenger will have to fork out US$2,250 for the cruise.

According to the Irrawady Fotilla Company, the Rajang River at 640km is rarely visited by travellers on account of its inacessibility and the lack of tourist facilities.

The river, with rainforest on both sides, is navigable on a Pandaw ship for at least 250km till the Pelagus Rapids and further on its main tributary, the Balleh River.

Meanwhile, Sibu Sarawak Tourist Board(STB) executive, Rudy Anoi told Bernama that the Irrawaddy Fotilla Company managing director Paul Strachan had last month travelled up the Rajang River for a study of its potential and to make preparations for the maiden cruise.

"He also held a meeting with STB chief executive officer Gracie Geikie and local tour operators on the possibility of co-operating with them," he added.

-- BERNAMA